President Biden on Friday announced a new three-stage deal to end Israel’s military operations in Gaza, adding that it was “time for the suffering to stop.”

“At this point, Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another Oct. 7,” Biden said in a televised address. “It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin.”

The president said that the deal was offered by Israel but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials, have not yet commented on the deal. Biden urged Hamas to accept.

The exact details of the proposal are not yet known. It could include a poison pill. But the general outline previewed a three-phase process. In the first step, there would be a six-week “full and complete” ceasefire—allowing for more humanitarian aid and the release of women and children hostages. During that time, Hamas and Israel would also negotiate for a permanent end to the fighting. In the second phase, the negotiated permanent ceasefire would begin and Hamas would release all hostages. Last, there would be a rebuilding of Gaza.

During the six weeks of phase one, Israel and Hamas would negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end to hostilities.

Now I'll be straight with you: there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two.

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) May 31, 2024

The announcement comes one day after Israel’s national security adviser estimated that fighting would continue through the end of the year.

Biden on Friday appeared to express frustration with Israel’s expanding offensive in Rafah, where strikes using US-made bombs killed dozens of Palestinians in displacement camps earlier this week.

“As someone who’s had a lifelong commitment to Israel,” Biden said, “as the only American president who has ever gone to Israel at a time of war, as someone who just sent the US forces to directly defend Israel when it was attacked by Iran, I ask you to take a step back.”

An advocacy group for Israeli hostages on Thursday described a recent closed-door meeting between Netanyahu and family members in which the Israeli leader said that he would not agree to a deal to release hostages unless it polled favorably for him.

Speaking from his beloved Trump Tower in Manhattan—where nearly nine years ago he descended an escalator and launched his presidential campaign—Donald Trump on Friday rambled through a litany of complaints.

Having just been found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush-money trial, Trump blasted the criminal case as “unfair,” “rigged,” and politically motivated. The convicted felon also railed against judge Juan Merchan, whom Trump claimed was actually the “devil,” despite appearing “soft” and like an “angel” to some. Trump also called President Biden “dumb.” The speech was typical of a Trumpian rant: falsehoods, grievances, and meandering anecdotes flew for nearly 40 minutes.

“We’re living in a fascist state,” he said at one point.

The press conference came as Trump’s presidential campaign seeks to aggressively capitalize on his conviction. Those efforts went into overdrive immediately after Thursday’s guilty verdict, with Trump’s fundraising page—which declared that the former president, who remains free pending sentencing and appeals, was now a “political prisoner”—apparently crashing due to a surge in visitors.

By Friday morning, the campaign announced that it had raised a staggering $34.8 million in small donations in response to the verdict, though that figure can’t be immediately verified.

At least 300,000 people affected as further areas across #GazaStrip receive new evacuation orders today, both towards central #Rafah in the south AND #Jabalia in north #Gaza@UNRWA estimates 150,000 people have now fled #Rafah since Monday, looking for safety where there's none. pic.twitter.com/9UNfo6b0rW

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 11, 2024

More than half of Gaza’s population have fled to Rafah since the start of Israel’s military operations in the north, pushing the densely populated city, which also serves as a critical passageway for transporting aid into Gaza, to a “breaking point.” Now facing an imminent ground invasion, as well as vows by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fight “with our fingernails” if the US follows through on its threat to cut off certain weapons, displaced Palestinians are forced to flee once again. To where, it’s exceedingly unclear, as Gaza’s north has already been decimated by months of bombing.

“The bombing and shelling is incessant,” Bridget Rochios, a certified nurse-midwife from California volunteering at Rafah’s last maternity hospital, told Mother Jones this week. “And there’s nowhere else to go.” Rochios described scenes of horror where basic medical supplies such as gloves and scissors are nearly gone; doctors are forced to use razors to remove umbilical cords; and the lives of 50 newborns in the intensive care unit hang in the balance.

The new evacuation orders came less than a day after a long-awaited US report criticized Israel’s war conduct, saying that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used American weapons in ways that are “inconsistent” with international law. Though it marked a rare instance of criticism by the US, the report ultimately said that the US did not see evidence to support a stop to arms supply.

Shortly after the report’s release, the US voted to oppose a United Nations resolution, mostly symbolic, in support of Palestine’s full-member status.

“While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,” a statement to the Daily Mail read. 

It’s unclear what the prior commitments are. But the Friday statement appeared to signal that the former first lady, who has been fiercely protective of Barron during their time in the White House and after, may not be thrilled that her son could enter the political spotlight anytime soon. That apparent reluctance comes amid a parade of humiliating moments for the Trump family, including explicit details of Donald Trump’s sex life, that have played out in the former president’s criminal trial where he faces 34 felony counts related to alleged hush-money payments made to a porn star actress. 

The embarrassment spilled out of the courtroom on Thursday when Trump also appeared to forget Barron’s age.

Barron’s high school graduation is scheduled for next week. The former president, who complained that his criminal trial was preventing him from attending, is expected to be there.

Stormy Daniels, the porn star actress whose sexual encounter with Donald Trump is at the center of the former president’s hush-money trial, took the witness stand on Tuesday, offering lurid testimony about their relationship.

Daniels told the jury that Trump had said he and his wife, Melania, do not sleep in the same room. And that the former president once compared Daniels to his daughter, Ivanka. “She’s smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well,” Daniels recalled Trump telling her.

All of which is enough to make anyone squirm, as it did for the former president who seemed so unusually alert and frustrated throughout Daniels’ time on the stand that his legal team requested a mistrial over what they saw as “prejudicial testimony.” Judge Juan Merchan declined the motion but acknowledged that some of Daniels’ testimony “would have been better left unsaid.” 

So what detail appeared to anger Trump the most? That may have been Daniels’ testimony about spanking him. As my colleague Dan Friedman first reported in January 2018:

According to 2009 emails between political operatives who were at the time advising Daniels on a possible political campaign, the adult film actor and director claimed that her affair with Trump included an unusual act: spanking him with a copy of Forbes magazine. 

Daniels confirmed as much on Tuesday when she testified about playfully spanking Trump “right on the butt” using a rolled-up magazine. NBC News reports that upon hearing these details, one juror visibly struggled to hold back laughter. At certain moments, Judge Juan Merchan seemed irritated by Daniels, warning her to stay on topic and repeatedly sustaining objections from Trump’s defense lawyers when details about their sexual encounter went further than Merchan appeared to appreciate.

“Just answer the questions,” he told Daniels at one point.

It remains to be seen how Daniels’ testimony shakes out for the case, especially as Trump inches ever closer to receiving jail time for his apparent inability to stop violating a gag order and his continued choice to defame his perceived enemies in the trial. That is, of course, if he can survive the excruciating testimony of Stormy Daniels.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

“Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people,” Noem told CBS’s Face the Nation. “So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog and what to do with it?” (Commander has since been removed from the White House and relocated to an undisclosed location after biting multiple Secret Service agents.)

The new remarks come as Noem, widely considered a potential running mate for Donald Trump, continues to attract outrage over a forthcoming memoir that features the governor recounting in graphic detail an incident where she killed her 14-month-old dog, Cricket. (“I hated that dog,” she writes, according to the Guardian, which first obtained a copy of No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.) On Sunday, CBS confronted Noem about another passage featuring Noem claiming that making “sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds” would be one of the first actions she’d take should she ever make it to the White House.

MARGARET BRENNAN: In fact, at the end of the book, you say the very first thing you would do if you got to the White House that was different from Joe Biden, is you’d make sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds, Commander say hello to Cricket. Are you doing this to try to look tough? Do you still think that you have a shot at being a VP?

GOV. NOEM: Well, number one, Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people. So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog? And — 

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Well he’s not living at the White House anymore–  

GOV. NOEM: — That’s the question that the President should be held accountable to. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re saying he should be shot?

GOV. NOEM: That what’s the president should be accountable to. What is—what is the number? And I would say about Republicans criticizing me. These are the same Republicans have criticized me during COVID. They’ve criticized me when I’ve made other decisions in South Dakota to protect my state. And my state today is extremely happy and thriving. We’re doing well.

So let me repeat. At Mother Jones, we respect a wide spectrum of opinions regarding dog culture. But killing your dog and then publicly wishing other people’s dogs dead, all while gunning to be Donald Trump’s VP, seems like a risky strategy.

“This is not a department that was dealing with one production at a time,” Mayor Eric Adams said, flanked by top police officials, during a press conference on Wednesday. “You have to be a well-organized professional operation to deal with all of those encounters.”

This was part and parcel for Adams, a former NYPD officer with a habit of calling the city’s law enforcement “my cops” and “my police department.“ But then came the first inklings of what has become Adams’ calling card as he justifies the crackdown on protests.

“When I first started seeing the protest take place in the city, it just did not fit right,” he explained. “I saw similar indicators from the Black Lives Matter march when it was brought to my attention that there were those who came to the city to disrupt our city.” The mayor then claimed that an investigation had confirmed what had been “feared”: New York City had fallen victim to a global phenomenon in which “outside agitators” sought to radicalize young people. (For what purpose, the mayor wouldn’t say.)

Adams continues to commit to such vaguery. When repeatedly pressed for specific numbers by multiple news outlets the mayor stuck to variations of “I don’t think that matters.” 

The mayor goes on to say "One professor poisoning a classroom of students" is just as bad as 50.

— Dana Rubinstein (@danarubinstein) May 2, 2024

There isn’t much doubt that some non-students were identified in the mix of the reported 300 people arrested this week; outrage over Israel’s war spreads far beyond Columbia’s campus, which hosts acres of publicly accessible space. But consider for a moment that the public is being asked to trust that nefarious “outside agitators” include Nahla Al-Arian, a retired elementary school teacher who was not on Columbia’s campus this week and yet was specifically called out by Adams. The narrative suffered another public embarrassment when what appeared to be an ordinary bike lock was offered as evidence that sinister individuals had infiltrated the city’s elite campuses. When the slippery language of who is “affiliated” with the schools is exploited, it seems to only serve to make the protests about anything but the actual issues at play. (As the city’s top brass has made clear, the specifics don’t matter anyway.)

“It’s scary because the whole world is watching what’s going on at Columbia, and these events need to be documented in real time, accurately,” Barnard student and WKCR reporter Sarah Barlyn said. “The mayor should be spreading accurate information. So should major outlets such as CNN….I wish individuals who weren’t privy to accurate information just wouldn’t share it at all.”

This is the “outside agitator” narrative stretched to its limits. It happens across political lines—the right’s hyperfocus on antifa and condemnation of the Black Lives Matter movement; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraging the FBI to investigate pro-Palestinian protesters. These instances tend to share a common goal of seeking to explain why police force is justified. In the case of Adams, the talking point refuses to see a city whose residents could be disgusted with bloodshed, so it must be someone else, an individual with questionable origins, that’s come to fuck shit up. Say it enough times and national media quickly adopts it too.

That all of this is happening against the backdrop of devastating force in Gaza shouldn’t be lost on anyone, especially on the exceedingly few individuals who have the power to create change. “No,” President Biden said on Thursday when asked if campus protests have prompted him to reconsider his support for Israel. The public can at least trust him on that one.

Threats of jail time. Rants. “Trout” mouth.

Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, which pairs a former US president with tawdry tabloid behavior, has produced several key moments. But until today, one feature commonly seen in criminal trials regardless of a defendant’s celebrity status—the physical presence of a family member—proved elusive. 

So who finally showed up? The honor goes to son Eric Trump, who on Tuesday, became the first Trump family member to physically appear with the former president in the historic hush-money trial. My colleague Russ Choma was in the room, so I asked him if the presence of a loved one seemed to have any noticeable effect on Trump. His answer was no.

“It doesn’t look like it’s perked Trump up. He still looks extremely sullen/sleepy,” Russ responded on Slack, confirming another day of Trump Snooze Watch.

“Eric has been sitting and watching big screens in the courtroom when information is put up. He sits in court like a normal person.”

Sounds good. But I asked Russ for some more color. Here’s what he kindly replied before turning his attention to more important things than my pestering:

Trump has spent the entire time sitting slumped low in his chair, and he appears to have his eyes closed the whole time, and occasionally looks like he’s startling, just sort of twitching, but I can’t say with authority that he’s sleeping, but he looks very sullen at least. He has occasionally chatted with his lawyers, or shook his head, but largely seems to be very quiet and subdued. Had no apparent reaction to being found in contempt.

So there you have it. A family member, who certainly is not his wife, finally showed up—and Trump still struggled to keep his eyes open. 

That’s what South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem admitted to in graphic detail in her forthcoming book, which was obtained by the Guardian and has since sparked outrage even in Republican circles. But if your instinct is to give Noem the benefit of the doubt, which I initially did upon hearing about this story, I am here to tell you that her actions are far worse than I could have imagined.

In the passages obtained by the Guardian, Noem details a hunt gone wrong because the dog, Cricket, was “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.” (To me, that behavior seems wholly appropriate for a puppy, especially when outdoors.) But things take a decidedly awful turn when Cricket attacks chickens belonging to a local family. From the Guardian:

Cricket the untrainable dog, Noem writes, behaved like “a trained assassin.”

When Noem finally grabbed Cricket, she says, the dog “whipped around to bite me.” Then, as the chickens’ owner wept, Noem repeatedly apologised, wrote the shocked family a check “for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime.”

Through it all, Noem says, Cricket was “the picture of pure joy.”

Noem had some options for what to do next. For example, she could’ve worked on training Cricket. Instead, after the chicken attack, Noem wrote she took the dog to a gravel pit and shot her. She described hating Cricket, whom she called a “less than worthless” hunting animal. 

Now, a wellness check: Are you horrified? Disgusted? Well, the South Dakota governor, who is reportedly on the shortlist for Donald Trump’s running mate, doesn’t appear to care. In fact, Noem seemed to relish the sudden attention as an opportunity to boost book sales. “If you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping, preorder ‘No Going Back,'” she wrote on X.

We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.

If you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping,… pic.twitter.com/bKhpUkchHV

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) April 26, 2024

“That’s classic Trump,” Barr chuckled on Friday when CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked about the insults. “What’s the question?”

He went on to express frustration that voters are faced with a rematch between Joe Biden and Trump. But given that choice, Barr explained that he would happily vote for Trump, who, he revealed in the same interview, routinely broached the idea of executing his rivals.

“But he’s mocking you,” Collins pressed.

“So? It’s not about me.”

The endorsement aligns with much of what Barr has already told us despite the occasional condemnation. As he said during a 2022 book tour, “I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic Party—it’s inconceivable to me that I wouldn’t vote for the Republican nominee.” Those remarks are almost exactly what he told CNN to claim that the “progressive movement and the Biden administration” were the biggest threats facing the United States today. 

For Barr, these remarks fit the story he keeps telling. That above all, he’s just a principled, just-doing-my-job law enforcement official stuck with tough choices. That, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth.